


The Monster of Your Dreams Is Me

by Lady_Kathryne



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:01:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27199549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Kathryne/pseuds/Lady_Kathryne
Summary: She'd dealt with his abuse for a year, subtle comments that turned into jarring slaps and hits. Her final challenge- so she thought- was escaping the place meant to be her tomb after he'd left her bloody and broken on the ground. Now, she's physically healed, but she just can't evade the monster in her dreams.





	The Monster of Your Dreams Is Me

The Monster of Your Dreams Is Me

 **Disclaimer** :

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, and events are the product and property of this author’s imagination. All rights are reserved and cannot be copied without consent of the author- me.

(~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ )

 _One year_.

She’d endured his harsh words and control for an entire year, never thinking she didn't deserve to be called fat or ugly or useless. He'd brought her down to nothing, made her think she was nothing, made her feel nothing as she listened to his tyrannical demands and felt the sting of every slap, jab, and prod with the grace of a saint. When her father reported her missing after a date that lasted longer than usual, even her friends knew something was seriously wrong. Left abandoned and nearly lifeless in her family’s old hunting cabin where the duo had spent a week during the summer together, Savannah Braxton could only pray she’d be found and lifted from the grasp of death’s icy grasp after being dropped on his doorstep by the careless cruelty of one who she thought loved her.

 _Six months_.

She’d been without him at her side for six whole months and not even the Halloween decorations gave her much excitement. She’d always loved Halloween- the mystery and the legends of monsters in the dark had forever thrilled her. Now, she found no pleasure in the horror of the holiday. Even the legends that she once loved held no sway over her dulled emotions and numbed heart. He’d left her in the woods to die and had then eluded capture for two weeks after his abandonment.

He was right; she was nothing more than his plaything. She was nothing more than a pathetic waste of space and no one would dare look twice in her direction again after they saw the aftermath of her time spent under his control. At least he’d been honest with her. Only, why wouldn’t he leave her dreams? With a disheartened sigh, she closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep.

_Trees. Always, she found herself in the trees with nothing but a flashlight to protect her. She shook her head and started moving, gut instinct telling her she wasn’t safe. At least this time she’d made it past the door of the cabin in her haste to escape the monster within._

_“Savannah.”_

_She gasped and whirled around to face the trees at her back. The flashlight in her hand cast shadows against the ancient trunks surrounding her. The heat of her breath met the chill of the air, creating a fog of growing panic with each puff expelled from her lips. Her clothes- jeans and a flimsy top that had seen better days- did little to protect her skin, but she ignored the growing goose bumps on her arms in favor of searching the darkness that surrounded her. Someone had called her name- the same someone that had lured her into the trees._

_“Savannah.”_

_Eyes widened and Savannah turned with a gasp to search the shadows behind her. A rustling in the leaves alerted her to something moving in the bushes just past the flashlights reach. Something feral and dangerous. She swallowed and worked to calm her heart. Huge. It was something huge and lurking just out of sight._

_“Savannah.”_

_A scream left her lips. That voice. Too close. A rustling in the bushes to her left caused fear to pool deep in her belly. Her heartbeat spiked and sweat beaded on her forehead._

_Run. She needed to run._

_“Savannah.”_

_She sighed in relief when she saw her back yard. Twenty feet and she’d be free of the shadows. Ten feet. Five. A scream tore from her lips as a hand clamped down over her wrist, yanking her backwards into the shadows of fear that chased her. She’d nearly made it to safety!_

_Pain, wicked and hot, raced down her spine as something sharp tore into the flesh of her side. One look over her shoulder had her stumbling away from the man- the monster- now hovering too close. The knife in his hand dripped with her blood and she shivered when he brought the blade to his lips, a crazed look crossing his face as he allowed his tongue to dance over the cold steel he’d just sliced through her skin._

_“D-Dominic?”_

_With a sinister grin adorning his lips, Dominic pulled her up by her hair and threw her body into the trunk of a nearby tree. He sauntered toward her, taking pleasure in the pain he’d caused, his chuckle dark as tears fell slowly down her cheeks while she worked to regain her breath. She whimpered when his boots swam into her vision as she worked to re awaken her senses._

_Dominic pulled her to her feet and held her up with a hand at her throat. Her eyes closed, waiting for what she couldn’t guess as his mouth descended to her neck, peppering the flesh with teasing kisses that had her trying to squirm from his touch. Those kisses did nothing for her anymore but place a fear deep in her soul and an urge to run far and fast from the demon standing before her. A deep growl from the shadows halted him as a look over his shoulder revealed a brown wolf to her eyes._

_“If I’m to die, you’ll join me, love.”_

A scream tore from her lips as a phantom fire seared through her side where his blade had ripped into the flesh. Hands on her shoulders gripped her tight as she fought to free herself of the blistering pain caused by the jagged teeth set into the wicked, unfeeling steel blade.

A voice calling her name alerted her that she’d had another nightmare- the same one she’d had since Dominic abandoned her to death and the abuse she’d endured by his hand came to light. She couldn’t escape the phantom pains racing through her body like a terrible fire that coursed through her veins, nor could she help the pleading cries that were ripped from her throat.

“Savannah, it’s ok! It’s me!”

Green orbs widened in shock and fear, focused on the familiar face of her father. She grimaced when the same eyes she owned stared down at her, filled with love and concern. She inhaled and exhaled, working to calm her fast beating heart. With a sigh, she swallowed and sat up to lean against her headboard.

“Another one?”

She nodded and bit her lip. “Same one.” She’d never told him anything more than that, thankful that he didn’t want to push her past her ability to process all she’d just mentally endured.

“Savannah, maybe I shouldn’t go tomorrow… One of the nurses could take Jimmy for his treatment this week…” Michael sighed.

She swallowed and shook her head. “No, dad. I’ll be fine… you should still go. It’s only a week and you promised Jimmy you’d go for support.”

Michael sighed. She had a point. “I know. You’ve always been the responsible one but I’m going to worry about you though. You’re not sleeping enough kiddo.” He tried to joke, but they both knew his concern ran deeper than he portrayed and verged always into a heavy guilt.

Theirs was a relationship born on years of dual reliance. Her mother had died when she was young and as she grew, she’d learned to manage a household in an effort to help her dad. His assurance that she knew how to handle herself had led to his allowance of Dominic into their lives. It had subsequently led him to nearly losing her at the hands of a sociopathic teenage boy who thought the town owed him something simply because his father was a local hero who died tragically in the line of duty as a police officer years earlier.

She closed her eyes. “Don’t worry dad. I’ll manage.” She hid a yawn and tried to smile.

Taking the dismissal for what it was, Michael nodded and kissed her forehead before leaving the room. She counted to ten and opened her eyes once the door clicked closed. She didn’t want to remember Dominic as a monster, but she couldn’t ignore the scars of his abuse across her stomach and sides either. She let a sigh escape her lips and pulled a book from under her pillow before flicking on her bedside lamp. She’d let the words of fabled native legends on the pages carry her somewhere safe while she chased another hour of sleep that was now eluding her.

By the time she’d finished the last page- a legend she knew by heart about the birth of the local native tribe from the belly of a wolf, dawn had broken, and she only sighed with despondent indifference. Her clothes were picked without much thought- barely put together- and one careless glance in the mirror gave her enough time to run a brush through the knots in her auburn tresses.

Voices in the kitchen gave her pause at the bottom of the steps. Her dad. ‘Uncle’ Jimmy. ‘Uncle’ Tony. Two- no three voices she didn’t recognize. She frowned and tried to stay quiet enough to hear the hushed conversation as she stopped just outside the doorway.

“- come to the reservation while you’re gone. It’s no problem for Marie or the kids, Mike, you know that.”

“You haven’t heard the screams, Tony. I can’t ask Marie and the kids to listen to it.”

“You’re exaggerating! It can’t be as bad as that. I‘m sure it’s just your mind making things worse than they are.” Savannah smiled. ‘Uncle’ Jimmy always tried to see the good in everything.

Michael sighed. “It’s sounds like someone’s killing her.”

Savannah frowned, hearing how tired her dad sounded. She’d done that to him, placed that weariness in his voice. Her choices were no affecting everyone around her.

“What if we stayed here?” She knew that voice, vaguely.

“Jason, right? I couldn’t ask that. You have school. I couldn’t ask you to miss it. The same goes for you boys as well.”

“Hold on Mike. Aaron’s already graduated and the boys here are home schooled by Marie. They wouldn’t miss too much.”

“They’re responsible, Mike. They help Aaron police the tribe when they’re not studying.” Jimmy grinned. “There won’t be much for them to do until Halloween night anyways.”

Michael sighed. “I don’t know… what if she doesn’t agree?”

“Then we’ll come back to work on the house when you come home with Jimmy.” Aaron said for all of them.

Savannah cleared her throat and walked into the kitchen having heard enough. She was determined to ease the worry and guilt from her dad’s shoulders, and if it meant allowing three boys to be her room mates, well, then so be it. “Morning.” She muttered.

“Morning Savannah.” Jimmy chirped, breaking the awkward silence.

Michael cleared his throat and drew her attention to him. “Savannah, you remember Aaron, Ashton and Jason? They’re the ones who uh… found you... in the cabin.” Michael said. “They’re gonna stay here this week and get started on the new guest room I’m having added to the house.”

She nodded at them. “You guys go to my school, right? I’ve seen you around.”

“Yeah… we don’t run with Derrick and his crew though…” Ashton mused.

“Oh… yeah… I uh… I’ve heard him talking about you guys… he um… he doesn’t like that I don’t have an opinion about you.”

They nodded, each of them taking note of the deep circles under her eyes as well as the way she pushed her food around the bowl instead of eating. They watched as she rushed to place her still full bowl in the sink and leave the house. At least her mind was open towards them. It was a step in the right direction at least.

“You sure you’re up for this?” Michael asked again.

Aaron smiled. “We’ll be fine.”

He nodded and sighed, offering Jimmy and Tony a beer. He gave Aaron, Ashton, and Jason a soda before ushering them all into the living room to watch the previous night’s game he’d had to record due to a long overnight shift. Guilt surged in his belly at the thought of being away from Savannah. The boys would handle it. He’d heard from Jimmy and Tony about their responsibilities. They’d keep watch over his little girl, and if they couldn’t help, they’d get her to the reservation.

He hoped.

X~X~X~X~X~X

Aaron waved goodbye to Michael and Jimmy from the front door of the Braxton home. Savannah had just gotten home from school and upon seeing the three teenage boys still in her living room, had sequestered herself safe in her own bedroom with the door shut tight. They’d shared a look before shrugging and deciding that they’d leave her alone until time to eat.

“Think she’s alright?”

Ashton rolled his eyes. “She’s fine. She’s more than likely sleeping.”

Aaron chuckled but nodded in agreement with Ashton. “She’ll come down if she wants. You can’t force her to open up to us.”

“I mean, how can she still be wrapped up that asshole after what he did to her?! He’s been gone for six months now and to her it’s like he just left yesterday!” His eyes hardened at the thought of Dominic coming anywhere near Savannah again. He’d been halfway in love with her for a little over two years already, and once he’d learned of all she’d suffered, he swore he’d find a way to show her he was right in front of her.

“You need to calm down if you want a chance to talk with her. She’s hurting and Derrick- yes, I know you hate the kid, stop glaring at me- Derrick said she’s not handling it in the healthiest way.”

“I can’t help that I hate that he has any kind of feelings at all for her. He only wants to date her because their dads are best friends and he thinks it’ll get him brownie points or something. You both know he’s a man-whore in the making.” Jason huffed and rolled his eyes.

Ashton shook his head and snickered. “Then you should make a move Romeo. She needs someone stable. Derrick will learn that eventually.”

“Someone should wake her up for dinner. Michael says she doesn’t eat too much these days. He’s afraid she’s going to become anorexic.” Jason huffed, ignoring his friends snickering.

Aaron cursed under his breath and swore to himself if he ever saw Dominic he’d tear the guy’s head off for causing harm to someone so innocent. With a sigh, he stood and moved into the kitchen to reheat the plates of food that Ashley had sent with him.

“Sounds like she’s waking herself up already.” Ashton quipped.

Jason rolled his eyes. He couldn’t be too mad at him and he counted it a miracle Ashton wasn’t in such a foul mood. They’d all grown up together, but Savannah spent more time with Derrick and his two cohorts than she ever did with Aaron, Ashton, or Jason simply because their dads were best friends from childhood. She was as beautiful inside as she was out, which is why the shock of her abandonment and abuse hit them all so hard.

_“Savannah.”_

_Her pulse raced inside of her chest. Her mind hissed at her to stay away from the trees, yet her feet disobeyed and moved closer still. Fear rushed through her as things unseen stirred in her imagination. The air pulsed around her with unseen dangers; predators waited in the shadows just beyond the reach of the flashlight she held._

_“Savannah.”_

_A gasp left her lips. She needed to get back to her bed. The darkness held too many evil things- tainted memories of a love she once believed in and wicked creatures ruled by the chaos of pain, fear, and death. She’d never been graceful, but she threw caution aside and ran in the direction she’d come. The direction of home. The direction of safety._

_“Wrong way.”_

_She tripped, her hands scraping over the dead leaf litter and debris on the forest floor. She hissed as her skin opened under the jarring of upturned, distorted tree roots arching from the ground. Home. She wanted to get home. A whimper of pain escaped her lips as she fell yet again, her knee twisting painfully against the weight of her body on her plummet. But wait. There! Twenty feet in front of her. Ten. Five! Just five feet from her back yard._

_“Nice try my love.”_

_Pain raced through her body as her back collided with the trunk of a tree several feet behind her. She heard the bones of her shoulder pop as they dislocated from the socket from the force of impact. With tears in her eyes, she looked up to see the man she thought she’d loved stalking closer. His eyes- once blue and gentle- glazed over in a feral hunger that she only wished she could forget._

_"D-Dominic, please… let me go.”_

_A cry of pain and fear left her lips as the crazed monster he’d become lifted her from the ground with nails digging into the skin of her neck._

_“Hush, you’ll ruin my fun.” He purred before his teeth dragged down the flesh of her neck, his lips following in a sensual dance meant to entice her senses to life. The tender action distracted her from the abrupt, jarring pain that suddenly coursed through her abdomen._

_She stared down in horror, frozen in shock and fear as she watched him draw back and slam his arm forward again. Another jolt of burning pain raced through her nerves as his favored serrated blade connected again and again with her belly, finally eliciting a piercing scream from her lungs. Her jeans were christened red with the stains of her life force as she slunk against Dominic’s hold on her._

_Red hot and agonizing pain licked through her body as more screams tore from her lips. Her eyes widened when she saw the same brown wolf stalking closer to the pair. Not for the first time since the nightmare started did she feel terror overtake her. If not by one monster, now another would take it’s place as a great maw ripped Dominic from his place in front of her. The great beast lay down beside her as she gasped for breath, crying when the very air seemed to leave her as fast as she inhaled. The last thing she saw before the darkness took her vision away was a massive head laying against her splayed open stomach as a pitiful whine left its throat._

“Savannah!”

Her screams had driven Ashton, Aaron, and Jason up the stairs, racing to get to her. They watched as her back arched off the mattress while her muscles seized with phantom pain from attacks that started over a year earlier. Each of them stood frozen in shock at the grotesque sight until the screams were replaced with pleading for release. The next scream escaping her lips sent Aaron surging to her, trying to keep her from bending her body in half to escape the torment her mind had unleashed.

“Savannah! Wake up! Savannah, you’re safe!”

Jason shivered and watched her call out to the man who’d abandoned her only a month earlier, begging him to stop hurting her; She didn’t want to die and begged him to stop. Aaron’s hand on his shoulder brought him back to himself- he felt an overwhelming sense of sadness for her after what she’d been put through by Dominic.

Aaron’s touch soothed her enough that she stopped fighting the hold he had on her. Her breathing calmed and she opened her eyes when her senses finally returned. Shame filled her; she’d not wanted them to see her that way. They hushed her before she could apologize and even Ashton told her to forget about it. He knew that hell all too well himself, having been abused for years by his own father- he was thankful death had taken the man in a car accident before he was old enough to do the deed himself.

Jason pulled her desk chair next to the bed and sat beside her. _Just to talk_. He promised her that. She nodded and offered him a shy smile. She couldn’t understand how she felt so at ease with the boy; sure she’d seen him around school, but they didn’t run in the same circles and only shared a class or two together. They hadn’t even had more than a handful of brief conversations in group projects.

“You should try to get something to eat.”

“I’m not really hungry right now…” She glanced around the room, hoping to find something to fixate her eyes on.

“You still tired?”

“Not really… I might just stay up and read for a while.”

He huffed a quiet laugh. “You’ll be too tired to function before you know it.” He warned. “I guess I’m gonna go back downstairs though… we’ve got sleeping bags set up in the living room… in case you need something.”

“I don’t hurt this way.” She wasn't sure what had possessed her tell him that.

Jason arched an eyebrow and sat back down in the chair he’d just stood from. “What?”

“I die… in my dreams. I feel it… the pain… I still feel it when I wake up sometimes.” She sighed. “Crazy, huh.”

He smiled and shook his head. “Not at all. The crazy part would be feeling nothing. That pain lets you know you survived something meant to kill you.”

“That which doesn’t kill you?” She arched an eyebrow.

“It only makes you stronger.” He said with a nod. “Try and sleep.”

“Think you can stop the dreams?” She wondered. “I’d rather not feel this pain anymore if I can help it.”

His eyes met hers and he smirked. “Nah, I know I can.”

“How?” She wondered. Her eyes were curious as she moved to resituate herself.

“Let me tell you a story. It’ll pass the time at least.” He said with a grin.

Savannah sighed but nodded, ignoring the curious flutter of her heart. “What story?”

He thought for a moment and smirked. “Do you know the one about the spirit warriors of my tribe?”

“Jimmy used to tell me that story.” She said through a yawn.

“Did he tell you we were born from wolves?” He asked with an arched eyebrow.

She eyed him and shook her head with an amused smile dancing over her lips. “That’s just a fairy tale. Derrick told me that one me last year…”

“Maybe, but you _have_ to admit, it’s a good one. Let me tell you again? Just until you fall asleep.”

She eyed him and finally nodded her head. “Just until I’m asleep.” She said.

For once, she didn’t dream about fire or pain. A giant wolf paced her in her mad dash from the cabin and kept her safe as she made her way home. It shielded her from the whispers and kept the monsters of her mind at bay in the shadows of the trees as she found herself stepping through the threshold of her back door.


End file.
